(I do of course reserve the right to change my mind at any time).
7 January 2008
Back in December I offered a few bikes for "sale". While they haven't been moving as briskly as I'd like, they *are* going out the door. Here's an update:
Malvern Star 20" dragster. Steel rims. 3-piece cottered cranks. Coaster brakes. Plenty of surface corrosion on chromed parts. Spokey-dokes. Needs new seat. Appears to be complete. Otherwise in rideable condition (or as rideable as these things ever were). |
Speedwell 20" Multi-Bike. Steel rims. Coaster brake on rear, pressed-steel caliper brake on front. Carry basket. Mudguards. Sidestand. Built to be rideable by adults. Make a good shopping bike - nobody would steal it! (I've tested this by taking it shopping and leaving it unlocked). In rideable condition. |
15-speed 24" MTB. Steel rims. Pressed steel caliper brakes. One-piece crank. Non-indexed thumb shifters. In rideable condition. |
Peugeot 12-speed road bike. Alloy rims. Alloy caliper brakes. Plastic pedals with toe clips. Missing front derailleur and left shifter. Broken rear spoke. Needs new tyres, front derailleur, front QR skewer, seatpost and seat. Would need some fettling to be rideable. |
Shogun Tri-Sport 14-speed road bike. Narrow 700C alloy rims. Dual-pivot alloy caliper brakes. Wrong front derailleur fitted, not working. Needs new seat and tyres, otherwise rideable. |
10-speed 26" MTB. 3-piece cotterless cranks. Steel rims. Alloy caliper brakes. Non-indexed thumb shifters. Needs new seat, otherwise in rideable condition. |
15-speed drop-frame 26" MTB. One-piece crank. Steel rims. Pressed steel caliper brakes. SIS thumb shifters. In rideable condition. |
18-speed 26" MTB with Biopace chainrings. Alloy front rim and steel rear. Cantilever brakes. SIS thumb shifters. In rideable condition. |
In other news, Aaargh is now an 18-speed bike again thanks to a generous donation from Peter Howard. My distance is still ticking over at 130km per week, although I've taken to riding the blue Speedwell Multi-Bike (see above) for shopping purposes. I can manage it for up to 20km rides now, before the diabolically hard seat and too-short seatpost start to make me walk funny.
The temperature is usually about 20oC for my ride into work (I leave at about 7am), getting to about 35oC for my ride home in the afternoon. There's relatively little snow on the road, as you might expect. (You *are* still reading this, Steve and Xavier?) ;-)
10 January 2008
Another flat today. It's a bit irritating that the guys in charge of mowing the grass near the cycle paths seem to feel that picking up the glass bottles and other litter first is somehow beneath their dignity...14 January 2008
Fixed another flat today, but this time it wasn't my own - it belonged to a fellow cyclist in distress 5km from home. He was just about to call his wife and request a pickup, but I pointed out to him that he'd never live down the shame and humiliation if he did such a thing.I changed the tyre and patched the tube, but I insisted that he pump up his own tyre (it was one of those oversized 2" mountain bike tyres, which take about 300 strokes from my mini-pump). He seemed impressed that it only took about 5 minutes, and vowed that he'd be buying his own patch kit, pump and spare tube on the morrow.
I'll probably be needing to apply another patch to my own rear tyre soon, it has one of those annoying, hard-to-find slow leaks that take 3 or 4 days to flatten the tyre. I've been a little busy for the past week, and I've just been pumping it up every couple of days (I wasn't able to find it when I got the explosive decompression puncture mentioned above).
21 January 2008
Due to a moment of stupidity yesterday afternoon when I started using an angle grinder without first putting on safety glasses, I caught a bit of flying metal swarf in my left eye. Because it was late in the afternoon I assumed it would wash itself out overnight, but when it didn't I booked in to see a doctor at 16:20. It was embedded in my cornea, and since there wasn't quite enough of it sticking out for him to get a grip on with his tweezers he had to "gouge" a little bit to get it out. Needless to say it was a bit painful once the anesthetic wore off.The last time this happened (17 years ago) I swore "never again!" - at least it lasted longer than the average new year's resolution. ;-)
The bike is running just fine, I'll try to find that slow leak in the rear tyre tomorrow (since I'll be staying home from work anyway).
28 January 2008
A public holiday today, and I managed to pass along another of the freebie bikes. I rode it to the Civic bus interchange (26km) and handed it over to Inge, who seemed very happy with his coke-and-bus-ticket investment:
28 January 2008
A bit of a warm day today, with a top somewhere around 35oC.I thought I should mention Aaargh's new pedals. I fitted them just before I headed off on the Great Victorian Bike Ride back in November, since there was no way I was doing that ride without toe clips! Plastic pedals are fine for everyday riding (provided you aren't a big strong type who stands on the pedals uphill a lot), but they're not really suitable for bolting toe clips to. The only metal pedals readily available with a 1/2" thread (used in 1-piece cranks) are those big chunky BMX ones, which aren't much good for toe clips either.
Fortunately I had a pair of 1970s-era rat trap pedals with a 1/2" shaft. These are built to last, and are easily disassembled to allow you to service their bearings (which are cup and cone, just like a wheel). I prefer the strapless toe clips, since they're easier to get in and out of while commuting (where I might have to stop 10 or 12 times on the way).
Also, my Subway Bike arrived last week, and I assembled it on Friday. Mine was beaten up a bit in transit, leaving the box quite battered, the front wheel out-of-true, and the chainrings slightly bent. Nothing irreparable, and I think that if Darth Vader was a cyclist he's be riding this very black bike. ;-)
Aaargh's classic pedals |
If the air temperature gets above about 30oC, my speedometer goes unreadable like this. It keeps counting, you just can't see what it's thinking |
My brother's new bike, Lord Vader. It's remarkably similar to Aaargh in both specification and quality. |
19 February 2008
The recent lack of updates has been due to fruit and vegetable harvestand preserving season - my free time has been mostly spent pickling, jamming and preserving. I've even had to delay Aaargh's 4,000km service for a while. Still riding though.25 February 2008
I picked up a new bike on Saturday, and spent a couple of hours tinkering with it rather than doing my yardwork. ;-)I assumed from the fact that it was leaning against a dumpster, was 30 years old, had two flat tyres and handlebar tape falling off, that it was probably available for recycling. I popped some flat MTB bars on it, added some grease and a new bearing to the totally-dry bottom bracket, and all was well. Not counting the rack, it cost me about $16 in new parts (1 x brake cable, 1 x gear cable, 1 x pair pedals).
(Hint: that means if you like the look of it, you can have it if you pay me $16). ;-)
The mighty Apollo 12-speed. You can see from the grass what I should have been doing. ;-) |
A rather neat rack that I bought on-special for $29 while on the GVBR. |
The handlebars are a bit sun-faded, but the stem was the correct size and the brakes and friction shifters were already fitted. |
Chunky steel cranks, and a new pair of platform pedals. |
The real reason why I swapped the bars - I didn't want to spend $20 on bar tape. |
26 February 2008
Sometimes the location of your puncture is easy to pinpoint. |
3 April 2008
It's been a while since my last update, so I thought that I should assure you that I'm still riding. I had a couple of weeks off in March due to holidays (first week) and a really, really bad throat infection (second week). I'm all better now though.This weekend I'm going to perform a slightly-early 5,000km service on Aaargh, mostly because the rear tyre is completely worn out and showing canvas. I must say I'm not too impressed with these Huffy-brand slick tyres from K-mart, for $17 I'd expect them to last a bit longer than 1,500km (on the rear wheel). I've bought a couple of new 26x13/8" tyres from an eBay bike shop for $16.50 each, we'll see if they last any longer.
Watch this space, I'll post some photos of the 5,000km service on Sunday.
6 April 2008
Time for the 5,000km major service!
That's what we call a worn-out tyre |
And that's what we call a worn-out chain |
A nice build-up of grease on the rear derailleur jockey wheels |
The chainrings weren't quite so greasy |
The rear axle cones were in good condition, with no evidence of wear or pitting |
There was no wear in the rear hub either |
The wear in the front hub's cones is about the same as it was at the 2000km service. I've decided to leave them in, and see how long they last |
There's a slight blue mark in one of the front wheel's bearing cups (not very visible here, unfortunately) |
This is a tightwad's technique for wheel truing without a stand |
Some tools of the trade. WD40 is very good for removing the worst of the grease from your hands prior to washing (spray some into your cupped hand, rub them all over, then wipe off with a paper towel or rag). It smells nicer than kerosene, too |
No wear was evident in the bottom bracket bearings. One of the reasons why I chose a bicycle with a 1-piece crank is the size of those bearings, and the ease of maintenance. |
The bottom bracket cups were in excellent condition |
Huffy 26x1.95 slicks now have a different tread pattern, and are rated to 80psi instead of 50. Time will tell if they last any longer than the previous ones. |
Considering Aaargh's quality and mileage, it's still in pretty good shape. I'm expecting to achieve 6,000km by the 1-year mark |
It turned out that I should have done some more research on tyres before I bought the new ones. Apparently a 26x13/8" tyre fits a totally different diameter rim to a 26x1.95 tyre, as this article from the late Sheldon Brown's website would have told me. So now I have a pair of tyres that I have no use for! Let me know if you use 26x13/8" tyres, and I'll send them to you (within Australia) for the cost of postage.
I've also left the chain replacement too long again, and as a result I've caused some wear to 2nd gear on Peter Howard's half-worn-out 6-speed freewheel. Not to worry though, that still leaves me with 15 usable gears. ;-)
Total cost of service:
